AD #4338 – U.S. Could Ban Mercedes; GM Spends $11 Billion on EV Write-Offs; BMW Developing Robot Teaching Software

This is Autoline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry.

U.S. COULD BAN MERCEDES
Could Mercedes be banned from the U.S. market? It sounds crazy but it’s possible. Earlier this year, a bipartisan bill was introduced that would prohibit the sale of connected vehicles by automakers that are more than 15% owned by Chinese entities. Bloomberg reports it’s lobbying to raise that threshold to 25%, but Mercedes meets the current requirement since Chinese automaker BAIC owns nearly 10% of the company and Geely Chairman Li Shufu also has a nearly 10% stake. However, Mercedes points out that no stockholder has direct representation on its board and no say over its operational decisions. If the bill passes, Mercedes would have until 2030 to come into compliance. And it better hope its effort pays off because the U.S. is one of its largest and most important markets.

GM SPENDS $11 BILLION ON EV WRITE-OFFS
GM reported its second quarter results, showing growth in key areas, but also the impacts of its EV restructuring plans. Globally the company sold over 1.4 million vehicles, a drop of more than 7% compared to last year. But it was a 10% jump over Q1 and GM was able to raise its average transaction prices. As a result its revenue topped $48 billion, an increase of nearly 2%. The company’s adjusted EBIT also shot up almost 30% to about $4 billion. However, GM has now taken nearly $11 billion in EV-related write-offs in the last year, which is impacting its bottom line. Q2 net income hit $1.3 billion, a drop of more than 31% compared to last year. But the company has probably paid off a good chunk of those EV bills and expects its EV-related losses to improve through the rest of the year.

GERMAN AUTO EXPORTS TO CHINA PLUMMET
China was once a key market for German automakers but in the last few years they’ve seen their market share decline due to fierce competition from Chinese brands. As a result, exports from Germany to China have significantly dropped. According to Destatis, German exports of vehicles and car parts totaled €4.7 billion in the first five months of the year, which is down 25% from a year ago and way down from a peak of €13.6 billion in the same period in 2022. Until 2024, vehicles and car parts accounted for the largest share of exports to China from Germany but have been passed by machinery and electrical equipment. And it doesn’t look like the German automaker’s struggles will end soon. Volkswagen, Mercedes, BMW and Porsche, all saw their China sales drop by at least 30% in the second quarter.

VW PRIORITIZES GROUP, NOT BRANDS
VW’s board of directors recently shot down CEO Oliver Blume’s plan to slash 100,000 jobs and close 4 plants in Germany, along with halving its global lineup. So now part of its new strategy is to base production on what’s best for the Group, not its individual brands. It will prioritize plants and models based on what’s most competitive, while also requiring the least amount of investment to manufacture. As we’ve reported before, Volkswagen was able to slash its factory costs in Germany last year by 20%, but it’s still well short of its goal. The company is reportedly targeting a per-vehicle production cost of no more than 3,000 euros. However right now its factory costs are about 4,000 euros per vehicle.

VW WANTS TO SELL STAKE IN INDIA UNIT
In somewhat related news, Bloomberg reports that Volkswagen is in advanced talks with Indian conglomerate JSW Group to sell part of its India unit. This is not VW trying to exit India, rather form a partnership so it doesn’t have to pay for everything on its own. But that’s about all we know for now.

 

STELLANTIS TURNS TO MOBILEYE FOR ADAS TECH
Stellantis is turning to Mobileye to help develop its advanced driver assistance tech. Next year select Stellantis vehicles will be equipped with Mobileye’s hardware and road management technology. The system uses a forward-facing camera to capture data about the vehicle’s environment, which is sent to the cloud, processed and then sent back to help support driving features, from lane keep assist to Level 2+ hands-free driving. The first applications will be in the U.S., but Mobileye also operates in the rest of North America, Europe, South America and parts of Asia.

STELLANTIS HIRES NEW JEEP & RAM CEOs
Speaking of Stellantis, it just hired new executives to lead two of its most important brands. Matt VanDyke has been named the new CEO of the Ram brand. Most recently he was president of marketing firm Shift Digital and prior to that he spent 14 years at Ford where he had several high-level marketing roles. The company also named Branden Cote as the new CEO of Jeep. He was most recently brand president of AutoNation and also held leadership roles at Aston Martin, Canoo and Mercedes-Benz USA.

BMW DEVELOPING ROBOT TEACHING SOFTWARE
BMW is doubling down on humanoid robots and one of its plants in Germany is leading the charge on the software side. The factory is developing a modular, open-platform AI ecosystem designed to give humanoids the motor skills and spatial awareness needed for complex parts manufacturing. By blending traditional programming with Vision-Language-Action AI models, BMW aims to help robots perceive environments and make decisions on their own. Complementing ongoing humanoid robot tests at two of BMW’s other plants, the ultimate goal is to create a robotic skill set that can easily transfer to different manufacturing processes and hardware.

But that brings us to the end of today’s show. Thanks for tuning in.